Latest / NO FILTER / _Looked to me like a railroad job__ Trump weighs pardoning convicts in Whitmer kidnapping plot(MP3_160K)

Transcript

_Looked to me like a railroad job__ Trump weighs pardoning convicts in Whitmer kidnapping plot(MP3_160K) · NO FILTER

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: President Trump continues to issue a series of controversial pardons
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: and commutations. The list includes a former New York congressman
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: who pleaded guilty to felony tax eVision, a former Connecticut
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: governor found guilty of obstructing justice, a rapper known as
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: NBA Young Boy who pleaded guilty to possessing weapons as
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: a felons as a felon, and more. On the list
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: of pardons were the men convicted in a scheme to
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. But Trump says he's looking
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: into their case.
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: I'm going to look at it. I will take a
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: look at it. It's been brought to my attention. I
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: did watch the trial. It looked to me like somewhat
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: of a railroad job. I'll be honest with you. It
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: looked to me like some people said some stupid things.
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: You know, they were drinking, and I think they said
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: stupid things. But I'll take a look at that. And
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: a lot of people are asking me that question from
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: both sides. Actually, a lot of people think they got railroaded.
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: A lot of people think they got railroaded.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: Remember that situation. Those men were convicted for potentially planned
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: to kidnap a sitting governor. President Trump has also commuted
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: the sentences of former Chicago gang leader Larry Hoover. Hoover,
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: once called one of the most notorious criminals in Illinois history,
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: has been serving multiple life sentences since the nineteen seventies
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: after he was convicted for ordering the killing of a
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: nineteen year old drug dealer. Hoover has previously renounced his
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: criminal past and has made requests to shorten his sentence,
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: including under the First Step Act, a criminal justice reform
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: bill passed during Trump's first term. Trump commuted the sentences
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: after a campaign by hip hop artist Ya formerly Kanye West,
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: who's lobbied Trump in the Oval office to consider releasing Hoover.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: The move is not expected to set Hoover free, though,
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: as he has over one hundred years left to serve
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: on state murder charges in Illinois. That presidential clemency doesn't
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: a race joining us now. NBC News Justice reporter Ryan Riley, Ryan,
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: those pardons seem to be a hodgepodge of people. But
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: what's the common thread that you've found on the list?
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: I think you know, getting access to Donald Trump is
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: the key point here, being able to make a case
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: that they were you know, you were either a victim
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: of government overreach. Obviously, Donald Trump, who faced those two
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: cases from Jack Smith as well as that's you know,
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: separate cases from state authorities, I think has a lot
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: of sympathy for individuals who allege that they are targeted.
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: You saw that with the reality television show couple for example,
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: who could you know, make the case that they or
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: didn't make the case that they were being targeted for
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: politics even though that case, as you point out, started
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: during Donald Trump's first term in office. That's when that
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: original indictment came down. It was a long standing investigation,
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: and so you know, I think that that's sort of
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: the secret sauce for getting forgetting some sympathy from Donald
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: Trump and saying that you know, you're targeted for your
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: political reasons, or just having that sort of inside connection.
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: And you know, if you look back to who who
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: is part in czar is now that was you know,
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: an individual Alice Johnson, who got to his attention because
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: of in the first term, because of Kimberly Kim Kardashian, right,
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: who got that case in front of him after she
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: saw a video about that case. So I think that
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: that access is a really key component here, and I
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: think that there's a lot of a lot of lawyers
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: who are basically trying to figure out how they can
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: make their way to the White House and make their case. Yeah.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: Access is key, loyalty is key. You look at the
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: case for example, of the Chrislies, their daughter is a
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: Trump supporter, and Trump's pardon attorney yesterday pretty much said
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: the quiet part out loud. He wrote on social media, quote,
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: no maga left behind. So what do you think this
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: suggests about how the White House is actually choosing people
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: to pardon and who it might mean could come next?
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: Ed Martin actually posted that about that case involving as
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: sheriff who was the supporter of Donald Trump, and the
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: allegations there and the conviction there was for this notion
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: that he was basically taking bribes and handing out these
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: badges and making people auxiliary police officers even when they
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: didn't live in the county, and that would allow them
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: to bring guns around the country, right, and it would
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: also allow people who were convicted felons to have weapons,
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: and so he was basically taking cash for this benefit.
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: Was what the jury found him and guilty of there.
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: But because he was able to make that case that
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: this was you know that this was because of his politics.
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: You know, he was someone who did regular interviews with
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: Breitbart the you know, obviously the administration seems sympathetic to that,
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: and the now parton attorney at the Justice Department, Ed
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: Martin was able to get that. You know, that was
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: the first case that he sort of handled them. He's
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: also going to be reviewing, of course, he said, and
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: met with a lawyer who was making the case for
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: all of the individuals who were not part of in
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: connection with the January sixth attack. All most people were pardoned,
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: but there was that narrow category of individuals from those
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: afar right groups, the Proud Boys and the Oathkeepers, who
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: are not and they want their pardons now. They were
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: only granted clemency, meaning that they were all freed, but
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: their convictions still stand, so they're now working to get
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: those toss out as well. And Ed Martin actually met
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: with one of the lawyers who was representing them just
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: last week and accepted those applications and those are working
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: their way through the system. So I think at that
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: access point, you know, this is not the normal system
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: that we're going through through the Justice Department, where there's
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: often a lengthy process, often a really thorough review, and
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: you know, critics would say it would take too long
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: to get through that process previously in different administrations.
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and you and I were talking when Ed Martin
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: was pulled from contention to be the US Attorney in DC.
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: We now see that this new role that he's found
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: himself in still allows him a lot of leverage and power.
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: The other piece of this too, when we're talking about
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: what could come next, is you look at Trump leaving
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: the door open to consider pardons for the men who
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: were convicted of allegedly trying to kidnap the governor of Michigan.
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: I mean, this was at the height of concerns of
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: political violence that very much still permeate the political realm.
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: What would it say if this pardon were to come down?
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: And what are the considerations here?
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: Yeah, there are really big you know, there are huge
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: allegations in that case. Obviously, there's also some controversy in
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: that case involving you know, members of the FBI. BuzzFeed
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: News have done some reporting contemporaneously about what was going
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: on with the case. So there's been a lot of criticism,
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: especially on the right, especially from the same critics of
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: the January sixth prosecutions about that case in particular, of course,
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: people who are just broadly critical of the FBI. Ally, yeah,
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: a lot.
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: For us to continue watching here, but the part and
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: train is certainly rolling and has been this week.